The bad news for Angel pitchers was that Bob Welch was on the mound for the Oakland Athletics. It meant Ron Hassey, Welch's personal catcher, was going to play. Now that might not strike fear in the heart of most pitchers. Hassey, after all, was hitting only .202 at the start of Thursday night's game at Anaheim Stadium. Against Angel pitchers, however, those type of numbers don't seem to apply. This season and throughout his career, Hassey has hit the Angels and hit them hard.

In throwing a perfect game against the Dodgers Sunday, the Montreal Expos' Dennis Martinez was blessed with the perfect catcher. Of 15 perfect games in major league, Ron Hassey has caught two. "But today Dennis did all the work, I was just back there catching him," said Hassey, a 14-year veteran. "He wasn't afraid to take chances, and I just went along with him." Other Expos said Hassey is being too modest.

In throwing a perfect game against the Dodgers Sunday, the Montreal Expos' Dennis Martinez was blessed with the perfect catcher. Of 15 perfect games in major league, Ron Hassey has caught two. "But today Dennis did all the work, I was just back there catching him," said Hassey, a 14-year veteran. "He wasn't afraid to take chances, and I just went along with him." Other Expos said Hassey is being too modest.

Pitcher Britt Burns will sit out the entire 1986 season due to a chronic hip injury, New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner said Friday. But the trade that brought Burns from the Chicago White Sox stands, Steinbrenner added. Burns, 26, was expected to be the Yankees' No. 2 starter, behind Ron Guidry. The six-year veteran left-hander was part of a Dec. 12 five-player trade with the Chicago White Sox in which the Yankees gave up catcher Ron Hassey and pitcher Joe Cowley.

The New York Yankees acquired former 20-game winner Richard Dotson from the Chicago White Sox Friday to help stabilize a situation that had forced the Yankees to use 15 pitchers as starters in 1987. The trade was the fifth between the two clubs in less than two years and involved the fourth player--pitcher Scott Nielsen--to be dealt from one of the teams to the other, then back again.

Reid Nichols, who tied the game with a pinch-hit single in the ninth inning, gave the Chicago White Sox a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners in the first game of a doubleheader Tuesday night with a 10th-inning bases-loaded single. Jerry Hairston doubled to open the 10th inning and Carlton Fisk singled him to third off Pete Ladd, 8-6. After Lee Guetterman relieved and walked John Cangelosi, Edwin Nunez came on and surrendered the game-winning hit. Dave Schmidt, 3-6, was the winner.

For Oakland A's manager Tony La Russa, the mistake was as simple as mixing up a blue lineup card and a yellow lineup card. La Russa found himself in an embarrassing position Thursday when he realized that the A's Tony Phillips had batted out of order in the second inning in the team's season finale against the Chicago White Sox. The error, however, was not discovered until Phillips also had led off the third, drawing a walk from the White Sox starter, Steve Rosenberg.

The bad news for Angel pitchers was that Bob Welch was on the mound for the Oakland Athletics. It meant Ron Hassey, Welch's personal catcher, was going to play. Now that might not strike fear in the heart of most pitchers. Hassey, after all, was hitting only .202 at the start of Thursday night's game at Anaheim Stadium. Against Angel pitchers, however, those type of numbers don't seem to apply. This season and throughout his career, Hassey has hit the Angels and hit them hard.

Cincinnati pitcher Rob Dibble has accused Oakland pitcher Dave Stewart of intentionally hitting Reds outfielder Billy Hatcher with a pitch during the final game of the World Series. The accusation prompted Stewart to call Dibble a "punk." The Dayton Daily News said today that the exchange occurred during separate interviews between reporters and the two players after Saturday night's game. In the first inning of the Reds' 2-1 victory, Hatcher was hit in the hand by a Stewart fastball.